Please Don’t Let Me Hit The Ground

New Order @ Hammerstein Ballroom 5/5/2005
Love Vigilantes / Crystal / Regret / Hey Now What You Doing? / Krafty / Transmission / True Faith / Run Wild / Jetstream (w/ Ana Matronic) / Waiting For The Siren’s Call / Bizarre Love Triangle / Love Will Tear Us Apart / Temptation // She’s Lost Control / Atmosphere / Blue Monday

New Order “Temptation (Live @ Finsbury Park 2002)” – This was a great show, but it was more satisfying for me than fun. I had learned about half of these songs in the past two weeks, so my feeling after the show was roughly similar to being confident that I passed a test after cramming the night before. As a result of my crash course in New Order’s discography, I was most excited to hear the songs that were new to me – “Love Vigilantes,” “Regret,” “Krafty,” and especially “Run Wild,” which is a relatively obscure gem that I am fairly certain I would not have discovered unless they had been playing it in recent sets. The big hits were a thrill, but I think I got more out of the giddy reactions of other audience members than the performances themselves, particularly during the trio of showstoppers that closed out the main set. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

For those of you interested in my DJ set, this is what I played:

Set one: Agentss “Agentss” / Johnny Boy “You Are The Generation… (Remix)” / Captain Comatose “To My Song” / Klaus Nomi “After The Fall” / Kylie Minogue “Sweet Music” / Cristina “What’s A Girl To Do” / Futon “Gay Boy” / Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Strange Sensation” / David Wrench “World War IV” / Meloboy “Hot Love” / Out Hud “It’s For You” / Gene Serene & John Downfall “U Want Me” / Lady Sovereign “Random” / Annie “Chewing Gum” / Lo-Fi-FNK “Unighted” / United State of Electronica “La Discoteca” / Fox “S-s-single Bed” / The Meters “Cabbage Alley (Cosby Alley)” / Bollywood Freaks “Don’t Stop Til You Get To Bollywood” / Arabesque “City Cats” / X-Wife “Action Plan” / Scissor Sisters “Music Is The Victim” / Jamie Lidell “Multiply” / Fox & Wolf “Youth Alcoholic” / Set two: The Silures “21 Ghosts” / M.I.A. “Bingo” / Love Is All “Make Out Fall Out Make Up” / Prince Francis “Street Doctor” / The Clash “Koka Kola” / The Fall “Theme From Sparta FC” / ESG “My Love For You” / The Knife “Heartbeats” / The Celestial Choir “Stand On The Word” / Prince “U Got The Look”

Lo-Fi-FNK “Unighted” – DJing to a room full of people standing around waiting for the headliner is fairly easy. There’s not much pressure or expectation placed on the DJ in that situation, so I could just relax and play Fluxblog’s Greatest Hits and try to keep people awake and energetic. It was somewhat difficult to gauge the audience’s reaction – I caught a bit of dancing here and there, and I had a few people ask me what I was playing a few times, so I took that as a sign that some people were enjoying my selections. At least four people asked me about Lo-Fi-FNK, so I assume that went over pretty well. It’s such an immediately ingratiating song; lord knows that if I heard it out and didn’t know what it was, I’d try to find out. (Click here to visit the official Lo-Fi-FNK site.)